The Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) has donated $100,000 to Helmets to Hardhats (H2H), a program that has placed numerous veterans in the unionized building trades since its inception in 2012.
“Our board of directors sees this as a good time to give them money they need and hopefully get them some publicity . . . a higher profile,” explains Robert Bronk, CEO of the OCS.
While some of that money will go towards administration costs, it is also being earmarked for job placements in apprenticeship programs and for placing vets in management positions with construction employers, says Joe Maloney, national executive director of H2H.
The donation could also be used to bolster H2H’s initiative with the Good Shepherd Ministries in Toronto to help homeless veterans find careers in construction.
While COVID-19 has hampered those efforts, H2H has placed two homeless veterans in carpentry apprenticeships, one in Toronto and one in London, says Maloney.
Since H2H was founded, it has placed 1,040 veterans in the building trades.
From its statistics for October, H2H saw job placements for five veterans in Ontario and another six vets signed up for trade apprenticeships across Canada.
Maloney says it costs H2H about $6,000 to find a placement for a veteran in one of Canada’s 14 international building trade unions.
“There’s no charge to the vets or the employers,” he adds.
The average age of placements through H2H is 33.
About 5,000 veterans leave the Canadian Armed Forces annually, Maloney says.
He adds more than 40 per cent of the national program’s placements are in Ontario.
Bronk says military veterans have all the soft skills to make good employees in the trades.
The donation is a win all around, good for the industry, the vets and society, he adds.
Tony Iannuzzi, executive secretary treasurer of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario, agrees, noting that working with H2H is “a two-way street. Vets are provided with solid employment experience, but our industry, contractors and unions benefit from the high value skills they bring to the equation.”
He adds contractor members of the union “are committed to partnering with us and H2H and have only positive things to say about the work ethic and attitudes of these vets.”
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